CRANE’S LIFT FOR TOILING ENGLAND
But it’s scant consolation as relentless Australia pile on the runs to set up chance of fourth win out of five
THERE were extreme ups and downs and a few rough edges during Mason Crane’s first full bowling day in Test cricket but there was enough to provide a glimmer of hope at the end of this sorry Ashes. Glory be, England may have found a spinner of real promise.
Throughout another long, hard, hot day for England at the end of a long, hard tour Crane bounced in energetically and tested the Australian batsmen in the most demanding environment.
He may not have stopped Australia, with a big century from Usman Khawaja and an unbeaten 98 from Shaun Marsh moving them to a position from where they are hot favourites to win yet another Test. However, he showed he may be the spinner England need if they are to compete here in four years.
Crane looked like he wanted to cry when he was denied his first Test wicket by the totally unsatisfactory, modern way to call a no ball. Just like another debutant, Tom Curran, in Melbourne.
But there was pure joy when finally he got his man after Khawaja became the latest Australian to demonstrate the qualities of discipline, application and concentration England lack to make what could be a match-winning century.
Crane’s final figures as Australia amassed 479 for four and a lead of 133 going into the fourth day were an unremarkable one for 135 off 39 overs, but they don’t tell the full story.
Crane is just 20 years of age and is trying to master an art of wrist spin that is probably the toughest in cricket and he was thrown into the deep end by making his debut here.
But Crane is a feisty character and a real competitor who has been adamant since we all first set foot in Australia in late October that he was ready for the biggest stage in cricket. The early evidence is that he was absolutely right.
Before we get too carried away it should be stressed that Crane is far from the finished article. There were several repeats of the aborted almost yips-like run-up that sees him refuse to release the ball, as he was advised to do by his Australian mentor Stuart MacGill if he felt something was not right.
Each time he did it he was booed by a packed SCG bathed in pink for Jane McGrath Day but each time he refused to be cowed and would not bowl if he felt something was amiss with his grip or run-up.
More pertinently, when Crane did bowl there was turn and control on a third-day pitch that started to show signs of deterioration — and which is unlikely to improve in Sydney’s baking hot sun.
Yet it was the man now back to his favoured role as England’s second spinner who made the first breakthrough of the day when, with his first ball of the third day, Moeen Ali claimed the biggest scalp.
Nothing looked more certain than Steve Smith not only going on to a hundred but a double century when he moved effortlessly to 83, but he proved he was human by hitting a low return catch back to Moeen.
After that the day became a tale of England manfully trying to hang on in there and restrict the Australian scoring rate as it became emphatically clear that their 346 after winning the toss was way below par. Crane looked as though his big moment had come just before lunch when he rapped a ball into Khawaja’s pads as he tried to get outside the line, only for Kumar Dharmasena to rule not out.
England’s review was then cut short when TV official Sundaram Ravi decided Crane had overstepped by the tiniest of margins and salt was added to England’s wounds by the realisation that Dharmasena’s call would have been overturned.
Crane and England could not believe it and their subsequent complaints were not only a reflection of the marginal nature of the call but also the apparent failure of Dharmasena to warn Crane that he was getting close to the line.
It is a dereliction of duty for on-field umpires not to call no balls and then check for them only after wickets have fallen and the sooner the ICC bring in ‘goal-line technology’ that provides a beep in the umpire’s ear whenever there is a no ball the better. Up in the commentary box Graeme Swann, the world-class spinner England have found it so hard to replace, was spitting blood.
Not a single wicket fell in an attritional middle session that was deflating both for England and the crowd, with Shaun Marsh being reprieved by technology on 22 after Dharmasena had wrongly adjudged an edge off Joe Root.
But Crane’s big moment came when he lured Khawaja on 171 down the track, spun the ball back through the left-hander’s legs and saw Jonny Bairstow complete a fine stumping. How Crane deserved it.
The Marsh brothers made sure there were to be no more inroads for England. Mitchell survived being given out lbw by Joel Wilson when Ravi inexplicably adjudicated that he had touched the ball, but the ball was missing the stumps anyway. With the temperature forecast to top 40 degrees today there is work for England still to come. Now Crane has to play in all conditions — including early season matches for Hampshire — if he is going to return here in four years and be effective. His emergence has come too late to influence this Ashes but he must have four years of Test experience before England come back. If England do not groom a wrist spinner and fast bowlers capable of matching Australia’s, they will remain a team that wins at home but seldom away.